one girl + one house + downtown dreams + suburban reality

Archive for October, 2010

Halloween has to be one of my favourite holidays of the year, second only to Christmas. I didn’t do much decorating last year since I had moved in only a few months earlier and was still overwhelmed with running a household singlehandedly (albeit, a household of one). I just didn’t have the energy to devote much time to decorating or crafting for the season, so this year I vowed it would be different.

My aim was to create some spooky decor in the entryway and the front porch, since those will be the main areas that guests and trick-or-treaters will pass by. Another goal was to achieve major impact, with minor damage to my wallet, and this was the result:

I tried to create a “curio” type of arrangement using things I had around the house as well as a few inexpensive crafts and Dollarama items.

I created the mounted spider specimen out of an old box, toy spider, frame from Dollarama and some scrap paper, strait pins and black paint. Total cost: $2.25.

The apothecary jars were made from glass jars and candlesticks from Dollarama and Buck or Two, using a tutorial from Dollar Store Crafts (my new favorite website). I used two packages of plastic skulls to fill the larger jar and a package of rubber worms for the smaller one. Total cost: $8.25, plus $6 for a tube of glass-friendly glue (which will last me for a long time). The catchall dish was about $2.50, on sale at BouClair Home.

And last, but not least (and my absolute favourite thing in the collection) I created Halloween-themed dust jackets using GIMP (an open-source and *free* program similar to Photoshop), and then wrapped them around hardcover books that I already had in the house. The owl statue was purchased a few weeks ago from a store in Manotick for $10, pricey, but far cheaper that similar items I’ve seen elsewhere. The mini-pumpkins were left over from my Thanksgiving decor.

I have to say, I am really happy with how the entryway turned out, and how inexpensive everything was. We’re doing a bit of outside decorating in time for Sunday, which I’ll post sometime next week – pumpkins and all!